Hock Fusion on ...

Well, change of plans. Surgeon can't do it today as there were too many emergency cases over the weekend (they are also an ER), which is pretty normal. Darn nuisance because it was meant to be Tuesday but someone had entered the appointment on the wrong day. Surgeon needs to leave several hours so she couldn't just slot us in, but she has time on Friday. I'm not really keen on Friday as it's Australia Day weekend so the Ortho specialist won't be around over the weekend.

So we stopped off at the lake and Tully had a little potter and stood and watched the walkers go by and was smiling and happy, that was nice.
 
I think it was meant to be. She was nauseous last night and has soft stools this morning so she would have been really sick getting the surgery. Hopefully it will settle down by Friday.
In the meantime, on our walk today she wanted to do the WHOLE walk. I didn't let her but gosh she still walked a long way. Interestingly, she did this after the last few trips to the Ortho vet so I really do think she has an inkling about what's going to happen. After all, she's had plenty of stays at the specialist hospital when she's really sick and she only had the gallbladder out 4mths ago. She definitely puts on an act that there's no problems when she visits the specialist, I wonder if she's trying that on me now too.
 
Caro said:
Well, tomorrow is the big day. Tully is booked in for a plantarsal (plantar-tarsal) arthrodesis, which is plates and screws in the hock region. It will keep her hock rigid but allow her to put pressure on that leg.

It's all worrying, the complication rate is quite high (33% for a major complication like loss of limb or death and 42% for a minor complication). And because Tully is old, and has an autoimmune disease the odds worsen. Even loss of limb would be bad for Tully because her other hock is on the way out so she would basically lose the use of her back legs altogether (and her shoulders aren't that great after ball chasing and dog sports). Both specialists think she should be PTS if that was to happen.

I've had two different opinions from two different ortho vets. One says leave it and just keep her in a splint until she can no longer walk, the other says do the surgery and give her a quality of life. The first option has become less and less viable - she's chewed her leg to bleeding over the top of the splint, her leg keeps twisting underneath her when she falls, she's being knocked over all the time and I have to keep carrying her up stairs with my bad back and of course, she still wants to chase . Leaving it in a splint will mean the other leg will fail at some point and I'll have no other options then.

I'm pretty upset. It's dire times. I know I'm always amazed how Tully bounces back but each illness just makes her more fragile and she's had her fair shared of illness over the last year. I have to give her a fighting chance, but this one is going to be tough. Tully is 13 years and 8mths old.
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Urgh. She's really sick now, sitting out the front in the dark because she's so nauseous I think she wants the fresh air. The only thing I can think of is the capstar I gave her on Friday has taken this long to hit her. Tully reacts really badly to flea treatments, probably for the last 4 years. Unfortunatley she got a really bad flea rash last week because I stupidly forgot to flea the puppy before she had a play date at a nearby oval - it's been so moist. I have no doubt Tully has picked up fleas from Kismet. The IMS said to try Capstar as it's probably the safest treatment (and only kills the fleas on her).

Anyway, I think I'll be cancelling Friday's surgery now. She hasn't eaten in 2 days and is getting sicker so it's not worth the risk.
 
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